AM Chapter 40

40 Idiot

Previously, Chen Mo always took the initiative to start topics when they ate together, but this time it was a little different. During the meal, Liang Jingren initiated a lot of conversation:

“Actually, I used to cause a lot of trouble too…”

“Really, Bro Ren? What kind of trouble?”

“Like accidentally breaking other people’s pens and notebooks at school, or breaking things while helping with chores at home.”

“Those are just small things.”

“Yeah, that’s right, but I was too naughty. I often didn’t listen to my parents, and I would deliberately argue with the teachers in class. You haven’t argued with a teacher, have you?”

“Um…”

“Haha, you look like a good kid.” Liang Jingren had eaten almost enough. He propped his head up and looked at the person across the table who was picking up food and looking up at him.

“Me?” Chen Mo’s chopsticks stopped in mid-air, “I don’t think I’ve ever been a ‘three-good student’.”

“So it’s just appearances!” Liang Jingren added with a smile.

Immediately afterwards, the smiling Liang Jingren exposed his true nature with one sentence: “You wouldn’t dare to go head-to-head with a teacher. You bully the weak and fear the strong, only daring to make small moves behind people’s backs. You’re so cunning!”

Although he knew that Liang Jingren had always understood his true nature, it was still too much to say it so bluntly to his face… Chen Mo’s hand holding the chopsticks was trembling, and he was too ashamed to lift his head.

“Chen Mo.”

Liang Jingren suddenly called him, and Chen Mo quickly looked up in response.

“What kind of person do you think I am?” Liang Jingren asked.

Chen Mo stared at his face, his mind didn’t turn at all, he didn’t think about anything, and blurted out: “Handsome.”

“Anything else?”

“Cool.”

“Hmm…” Liang Jingren lowered his eyes and pondered, holding his chin.

“W-what’s wrong?” Chen Mo was a little uneasy.

Liang Jingren slightly raised his eyelids, and a pair of eyes under those sword-like eyebrows, both cool and handsome, shot a sharp look at him, “The kind of cool that street gangsters have?”

“Ah?” Chen Mo didn’t react.

Liang Jingren smiled and said, “Every boy admired those invincible street fighters when they were young, right? I understand, after all, that’s who I am~”

“And, I later became the object of admiration.”

“But the parents and teachers weren’t happy, because I skipped school, smoked, drank, fought, and even cheated my family out of money to go to internet cafes… My brother, Liang Jingyu, was also very worried and had a headache because of me.”

“Because Mom was busy with work and had some health problems, he was the one who always went to the police station to bail me out. Liang Jingyu always pretended to be a mature adult in front of the cops, lecturing me in a reasonable manner, and had to endure standing there and listening in order to get me out sooner…”

Chen Mo suddenly understood and said in astonishment: “So that’s why you don’t like the police station?”

Liang Jingren leaned back in his chair, slowly nodded at him, and muttered in a low voice, “Which normal person likes going to the police station…”

“This is the first time I’ve heard about these things!” Chen Mo said in astonishment, “I only knew that you were good at fighting… I didn’t even know you had an older brother!”

“Ah Strong and the others told you about my fighting, right?” After asking, he saw Chen Mo nod. Liang Jingren had expected this, “Yeah, that’s normal. But there’s no need to tell you some things, and they haven’t been talking nonsense behind my back.”

Chen Mo couldn’t eat anymore. His mind was no longer on his appetite. He put down his chopsticks and leaned forward eagerly, asking, “Tell me directly! I still want to hear about your past!”

Liang Jingren tilted his head slightly and asked, “Aren’t you disillusioned with me after hearing these things?”

Chen Mo was stunned for a moment. He watched Liang Jingren suddenly lower his head and pretend to be thinking, then suddenly laughed, “Bro Ren, I haven’t thought of you as a good person since the first time I met you~”

Liang Jingren raised his chin and narrowed his eyes dangerously, saying in a cold tone that clearly didn’t sound like a good person, “You’re really bold, huh? I should praise you for being honest this time, huh?”

Seeing Chen Mo shudder suddenly, timidly shrink his neck, and blink at him with a flattering and ingratiating look, Liang Jingren let out a breath and returned to normal, smiling as usual.

Liang Jingren knew that he was the toughest one to bully for Chen Mo, who was self-centered and had the strongest youthful spirit when he was a teenager. Even if Chen Mo secretly caused trouble outside, when he returned to the villa and needed his help, he still had to stand at attention in front of him and honestly admit his mistakes, so Chen Mo’s cheap behavior never affected him. In front of him, Chen Mo was always sensible, proud, delicate, and excessively lively and verbose.

After living together in this villa for nearly five years, Liang Jingren couldn’t really hate Chen Mo if he asked himself honestly.

“Are you full? Go wash the dishes. I need to take a shower too.” Chen Mo promised to pay for a cleaning service to come tomorrow, but he still had to wash the dishes tonight.

Despite saying that, Liang Jingren still skillfully and quickly cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks and stacked them up when he got up, and swept the leftover food on the table into a pile with a cloth. In the end, he only left Chen Mo with the “washing” part.

When Liang Jingren came out of the kitchen, he roughly shook the water off his hands, “I have to go to the company tomorrow. I don’t know if this rain will stop tomorrow…” As he said that, he looked towards the floor-to-ceiling window on the other side of the living room that led to the outside.

Although the curtains in front of the floor-to-ceiling window were drawn, they weren’t drawn tightly. From the gap, you could see that the rain outside was very heavy, one streak after another.

Chen Mo, who was about to enter the kitchen, stood next to him and looked at the same place, but said, “I hope this rain doesn’t stop tomorrow either.”

Liang Jingren turned his head and glanced at him, opened his mouth, and said, “It should stop.”

Chen Mo looked at him.

Liang Jingren continued, “There’s a big deal to be negotiated tomorrow. A group of people have been preparing for a long time. If it’s delayed because of the weather, I’ll really be devastated.”

“I’m sorry.”

Liang Jingren lowered his eyes and turned to look at the “good boy” who had inexplicably started apologizing again without knowing what had happened. He reached out and cupped Chen Mo’s face, examining it for a while, and said helplessly, “I thought you were crying again.”

Chen Mo didn’t want to cry at first, but after being cupped, looked at, and said to like that, he couldn’t help but sniffle. As a result, he choked and repeated his previous mistake, gasping and coughing again, and tears started streaming down uncontrollably.

Liang Jingren was startled and quickly patted him on the back.

Chen Mo hugged one of his arms and cried, “Wuwu Bro Ren cough cough! I didn’t do it on purpose, cough cough! I didn’t mean to make you cry wuwu…”

“Huh?” Liang Jingren was both puzzled and amused, “Which eye saw me crying?”

Chen Mo cried the most today, “Cough cough! Wuwu…cough…” He was coughing and panting while crying. Liang Jingren pursed his lips unconsciously as he watched him touching his throat and coughing painfully.

“You’re the only one saying sorry. I haven’t apologized to you yet.” Liang Jingren opened his mouth and said.

“Cough! Wuwu…cough…”

“It was wrong of me to strangle your neck. I’m sorry, Chen Mo. I was so angry. I didn’t want to kill you. I’m sorry…”

“Wuwu…”

“But what you said was too unpleasant. I can’t blame me entirely…”

“Wuwuwuwuwu!!” Chen Mo stopped coughing and instead cried even louder—howling and crying, covering up all the sounds of his speech.

Liang Jingren’s forehead twitched, vaguely realizing that he was faking it a bit. But Chen Mo was too fragile right now, and probably couldn’t withstand a slap from him.

He was helpless against this guy who seemed so fragile that he would break at the slightest touch, so he could only patiently pat the other person’s back constantly, and finally apologized again without saying any more nonsense.

When Chen Mo stopped crying and cheered up a little, no longer coughing and panting, Liang Jingren promptly reminded him, “Stop crying. Go wash the dishes.”

Hearing this, Chen Mo wanted to cry again.

Liang Jingren heard Chen Mo cry too much this day. Even after he sent Chen Mo back to his room and closed the door at night, and then returned to the second floor and closed the door, when he turned off the lights and closed his eyes, he could still hear Chen Mo’s crying echoing in his ears.

He hadn’t cried much when he locked Chen Mo up four years ago; he had been very tough.

The rain continued to fall outside, and the wind wasn’t as strong. The windows no longer made “bang bang” knocking sounds, and the house was much quieter than before.

But the quieter it was, the more noise there was in Liang Jingren’s mind: in addition to the crying, there were also coughs, phlegm sounds, and labored, cramped breathing sounds…

Originally, he and Chen Mo had been quiet while eating because they were chewing things, but as he ate, he would occasionally hear Chen Mo suppressing his cough and clearing his throat. He couldn’t stand the sound, so he later opened the conversation box and pulled out some memories that were almost faded to chat as an appetizer.

——He was diverting his attention, making excuses for himself.

But now there was no one to talk to him.

The sleeping pills by the bed were running out quickly again.

Liang Jingren turned his head on the pillow, opened his eyes, and quietly looked at the medicine bottle under the small lamp.

In those days and nights when he didn’t drink and only relied on sleeping pills to fall asleep, he had thought countless times: if Chen Mo and I weren’t father and son, that would be great.

The agreement signed a few months ago didn’t relieve his worries, but instead left a real mark on the words “father and son” in reality.

“Being able to sleep with his son”—Chen Mo’s words exposed his selfish and hypocritical face of forcing the other party to admit his mistakes again and again.

Liang Jingren hated himself for giving in to momentary pleasure that night.

Therefore, when those words rushed into his mind, his moral conscience, his guilt, his desire to avoid responsibility, and his heart knot and bitterness that had existed for four years but could not be resolved, enveloped all of his mental emotions in an instant.

He projected all of his hatred onto Chen Mo.

He almost killed Chen Mo.

He didn’t know what Chen Mo saw in the mirror with water vapor when he was taking a shower, but when he first checked, only the words “shocking” could describe it.

At that time, Chen Mo, who was sitting on the bed, actually pulled his hand up to touch it and called him “Bro Ren”… Liang Jingren couldn’t understand it.

Ah… that’s right… He said he loved him.

Ha, what an idiot with a love brain.

Liang Jingren still couldn’t understand it.

He only felt that Chen Mo should cry, even if he was annoyed, Chen Mo should cry, it was reasonable, after all, it was all thanks to him. At least he couldn’t deny Chen Mo’s panting pain and cough.

At this moment, increasing the dosage of sleeping pills would be useless. Liang Jingren knew that as long as he didn’t go to the third floor to solve the “root cause”, the crying from the third floor would directly penetrate the floor and ceiling and break into his dreams without explanation. When he woke up the next day, he would still feel like he hadn’t rested well.

This was for his own sake. For his own sake, he could get a good night’s sleep. Liang Jingren said this in his heart and slowly got out of bed.

He put on his slippers, opened the door, and walked towards the silent third floor.

Chen Mo had been running to the vegetable market, playing the “throwing cauliflower” game with that old bastard Liang Jingyu, and crying several times in the rain. He was really tired at night. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he became drowsy.

When he heard the sound of the door opening, Chen Mo was somewhat alert and slightly raised one eyelid, but his whole body was still pressed against the bed.

Until the dark figure at the door walked in and closed the door, and then walked closer and closer, so close that Chen Mo’s half-closed eyes could gradually see through the rain and night that the figure was Liang Jingren in his pajamas, he suddenly woke up.

“Bro Ren?!” Chen Mo sat up from the bed with a “whoosh”.

Liang Jingren didn’t answer him. He just stood in the center of the room and took a deep look at him, then walked past the foot of his bed and went straight to his closet.

“Y-you, are you looking for something?” Chen Mo couldn’t think of anything Liang Jingren would hide in his closet, and he had looked through it once when he took a shower and got dressed, and there was nothing unusual.

Liang Jingren still didn’t answer.

He took out a high-quality gray cotton T-shirt from the closet on his own, and then turned to look at Chen Mo.

Chen Mo was extremely confused. He wondered if he was dreaming, otherwise how could Liang Jingren run to his room in the middle of the night, rummage through his closet, take his clothes, and walk towards him…

Liang Jingren walked to his bed, twisted the gray cotton T-shirt into a rope with both hands, and then stretched it hard at both ends, “Put both hands out.”

Chen Mo’s pupils dilated, and he was so shocked that he was speechless.

But he still did as he was told.

After a while, Liang Jingren tied his hands together with the clothes, then gently patted him on the shoulder, pushed him hard, and raised his chin at him as a signal.

Chen Mo moved inward after realizing what was happening.

Then, Liang Jingren kicked off his slippers and climbed onto his bed.

Chen Mo: … I must be dreaming.

Liang Jingren lay down on the bed with him, facing each other. This was supposed to be a tender and ambiguous moment, but Liang Jingren opened his mouth and said, “Don’t cry. Don’t disturb my sleep.”

I’m not crying, am I? Chen Mo thought, was Liang Jingren dreaming instead of me?

Watching Liang Jingren close his eyes, Chen Mo stammered for a while, but finally said nothing and pursed his lips.

His first love was lying on the pillow next to him, sleeping peacefully. Chen Mo carefully recalled his twenty-two years of life, and he had never had a similar dream.

If this was a dream, then this dream was too real.

He could feel Liang Jingren’s breath as long as he leaned in slightly, and he could see the rise and fall of the pajamas on the other person’s chest with a slight tilt of his head. The collarbones were also rising and falling slightly with the master’s breathing.

Gradually, Chen Mo understood, and he seemed to know why Liang Jingren wanted to tie his hands.

Really… as expected of his Bro Ren.

The wind blew all night, and the rain fell all night. The next morning, sunlight poured down on the water mist, refracting a semi-transparent rainbow.

The weather cleared up.

Liang Jingren slept very well last night, so he was particularly energetic when he woke up.

He only took a second, a blink of an eye, to accept the reality that he was lying on Chen Mo’s bed and Chen Mo, with his hands tied, was sleeping next to him.

The imagined disgust and annoyance didn’t come, but he felt quite novel.

Carefully and cautiously, Liang Jingren untied the clothes tied to Chen Mo’s wrist. He looked at it carefully, and there were no marks left.

But…

He put down the gray T-shirt and stretched out one hand, his fingers gently touching the side of the sleeping man’s neck, which had a red mark, and all he saw was regret.

Then, his fingertips swiped through the air and came to the soft, shampoo-scented dark hair.

Chen Mo’s hair was particularly soft. He remembered that he would always touch it when he gave Chen Mo a lollipop…

Too sleazy! Like a trafficker luring a child! Liang Jingren cursed himself even when he was being ruthless.

Before touching Chen Mo’s hair, Liang Jingren took back his hand in time and stopped a sleazy act from happening while the other person was unprepared.

He gently lowered his head, approached the untouched hair, and apologized softly to the owner of the hair:

“I’m a scum who has succumbed to desire. I’m sorry.”

Chen Mo seemed to be having a nightmare about someone scolding him as “scum”, and he twisted his neck while humming disapprovingly.

Seeing this, Liang Jingren smiled.

After that, Chen Mo scratched his right wrist with his left hand, stretched out his hands, and turned over to continue sleeping. Liang Jingren also got out of bed at this time.

The phone alarm vibrated, and Chen Mo woke up.

He reached out and groped for the phone several times before picking it up. When he looked at the time on the screen, something was wrong: it was too early.

Just as he was blinking extremely slowly, about to close his eyelids again, he suddenly realized—I seem to have slept in the villa last night?

That’s right! Liang Jingren even sneaked in and climbed into his bed in the middle of the night to sleep with him!

Chen Mo suddenly opened his eyes wide and flipped over sharply, but there was no one beside him.

Eh?

Was it really a dream? Chen Mo was stunned for a while.

He got out of the bed he had been sleeping on for nine years and sat blankly for a while, then immediately decided to get out of bed when he turned to look at the window and his eyes were stung by the dazzling sunlight.

He put on his slippers and went from the third floor to the first floor, anxiously searching for the figure of the villa’s owner.

The tragic situation in the living room and kitchen was unbearable to look at. Many seafood items had begun to emit a fishy smell, and swarms of flies were flying around everywhere, leaving only afterimages as they bumped into things.

Chen Mo regretted it very much. He should have cleaned up downstairs last night.

Holding his breath, Chen Mo squinted at the entrance of the stairs and scanned the entire open area on the first floor. Of course, Liang Jingren wasn’t in this dirty place that was like a vegetable market garbage station.

Then where would he go? Chen Mo thought, could he have already gone back to the company?

But it was still so early…

Chen Mo stood in the middle of the living room in disappointment. The main battlefield yesterday afternoon was in the restaurant and kitchen, and this was the place with the least garbage. But there were vegetable leaves on the sofa, and Chen Mo couldn’t sit down.

Suddenly, he noticed that the living room was particularly bright, with sunlight shining everywhere. He looked up towards the floor-to-ceiling window and, as expected, the curtains had been drawn open.

The floor-to-ceiling window had also been pushed open and closed again, leaving only a small gap. Chen Mo walked over, grabbed the push-pull groove of the floor-to-ceiling window, and forcefully pulled this heavy guy, whose track was a little rusty, to one side.

He walked into the yard from one side of the living room, and then walked halfway around the yard.

Finally, he saw Liang Jingren in a place that didn’t have much grass but was full of flowers.

Liang Jingren was looking up slightly, looking at a large cluster of vibrant red hibiscus flowers that had spread over from the outer green belt with their branches lowered by the rain, as if he was lost in thought.

He had a cigarette between his fingers. He didn’t know how many puffs had been taken, but at this time it was only drifting away with the flow of air.

“Bro Ren is really in the mood. He came to admire the flowers early in the morning,” Chen Mo said as he slowly approached him.

Liang Jingren turned his head to look at him after hearing the sound. Soon, he raised his head again, and his vision was once again occupied by the red and green flowers and plants.

“No, I was just walking around and taking a stroll. I just happened to see it.” After saying that, he finally put the cigarette that was almost smoked out by the wind in his mouth and took a puff.

“How many is that?” Chen Mo asked.

Liang Jingren lowered his eyes and looked at the cigarette in his hand, saying, “It’s only the first one.”

Chen Mo smiled and said, “It seems like I woke up at just the right time!”

Liang Jingren glanced at him and asked, “Why are you up so early?”

Chen Mo opened his eyes wide and said, “I have to go to work! It takes more than an hour to drive from here!”

Liang Jingren leaned his upper body forward slightly, covered his mouth with the hand holding the cigarette, and smiled.

After only smiling twice, Liang Jingren hugged one arm and flicked the ash with one hand, saying to him, “Then go to work quickly. Don’t be late.”

“What about you?”

“Me?”

“Didn’t you say you had a big contract today?”

“That’s in the afternoon. I’m taking leave this morning.”

Chen Mo was stunned for a moment and asked, “Why?”

Liang Jingren curled his lips, turned his head, raised his eyebrows slightly, and said, “Do you remember what good things you did in the house yesterday?”

“Uh… um… yeah.” Chen Mo nodded embarrassedly while stammering. He pursed his lips hard, enveloping them with his upper and lower lips, and said, “I’ll contact the cleaning company…”

“No need.”

As soon as these words came out, Chen Mo opened his mouth in surprise, but Liang Jingren’s next sentence was, “I’ll contact the people. You just need to pay.”

“…”

“I’ll send you the bill within today. By the way, do you want me to issue an invoice?”

“Oh, okay.” Chen Mo responded like a robot.

The chat stopped here. Liang Jingren finished smoking the last puff, lowered his head and pinched the cigarette with his left hand, and flicked the cigarette butt with his little finger with lingering interest.

Chen Mo walked to his side, only one step away. Liang Jingren only glanced sideways, using the corner of his eye to probe what he wanted to do.

Chen Mo, whose face was flushed with sleepiness, took a deep breath, and reached out to him as if gathering courage, “Can you give me your hand? Bro Ren.”

“What do you want to do?” Liang Jingren’s face, eyes, and even his body finally turned slightly towards him, but his tone was still faint.

Liang Jingren’s mood in this state couldn’t be considered very good, but it wasn’t bad either. In short, it was a degree that could be discussed. Chen Mo understood this in his heart.

So he made a slightly annoyed and temperamental pout, saying, “I gave you both of my hands last night! Is it okay to ask you for one hand now?”

Liang Jingren stared at him for a long time, pinched the cigarette butt with his left hand, and then spread his right hand to him.

——See, Liang Jingren really had feelings for him. Otherwise, why wouldn’t he even bother to say a simple “no”?

The little deer in Chen Mo’s chest seemed to have woken up too, and was gradually becoming active.

But what did he want Liang Jingren’s hand for?

He actually hadn’t thought it through at all.

He just saw Liang Jingren standing there quietly smoking, and then his gaze was attracted by the rising smoke and the sudden sparks. Then, as the sparks moved inward and the ashes fell, his gaze unconsciously condensed on the three fingers holding the cigarette in Liang Jingren’s hand.

“What exactly do you want to do?” As he was staring blankly at the palm in front of him, Liang Jingren seemed to have been waiting for a long time and was getting a little impatient.

Chen Mo swallowed and grabbed it with both hands before the other party could take back his right hand.

Then, he gently pulled that hand in front of him, slowly held it up to his eyes, and touched the hot palm with his gentle lips.

There was no smell of smoke, because the cigarette was still being held in Liang Jingren’s left hand.

He carefully revealed his eyes from the bifurcation of his fingers, anxiously holding his breath, and asked hesitantly, “Bro Ren, are you… not angry?”

Liang Jingren didn’t pull back his hand, but just looked at him and said with a smile, “Idiot!”

The wind came, swaying the hibiscus flowers and dropping dewdrops after the storm.

Chen Mo felt that he, who was illuminated by thousands of refracted sunlight, was reborn at this moment, and that the reborn self was encountering his first love again at this moment.